Fighter of the year not in ufc or wec

id go with jorge santiago, a tko over andrei semenov, a huge submission win over jeremey horn, and to top it off winning the strikeforce mini tournament with a ko over salmon and a tko over prangley. after a pretty dismal 06 he really had a great year. who do you guys think had the best 2007.

hotrodttt

12/24/07 1:33:45AM

Here are some of my Nominations

- Jorge Santiago like you said - Neil Grove is still undefeated and KO'd JT - Robbie Lawler had a great year by beating Trigg and Ninja - Akitoshi Tamura beat Lion Tekeshi and Fujimiya - Dong Sik Yoon one all of his 2007 bouts with the Dongbar - JZ had some great stoppages over Nam Phan and Shaolin and had a sick armbar against Dida

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ohiostate1016

12/24/07 1:44:50AM

Man, the hotrod brings it! I'd have to go with Santiago or Lawler. Lawler would win a vote based on name recognition, but I'd actually take Santiago. And they say the MW division sucks! Who are THEY?

Manfred

12/24/07 2:10:15AM

^The MW div. is weak in the UFC, but there is a lot of talent out side the UFC in that weight. Trigg, Ninja, Lawler, Kang, Lindland, the list goes on.

For non-UFC and WEC, I'd go with Lawler. Ben Rothwell had a good year also going 5-0 with 3 stoppages.

jiujitsufreak74

12/24/07 2:19:51AM

Posted by ohiostate1016

Man, the hotrod brings it! I'd have to go with Santiago or Lawler. Lawler would win a vote based on name recognition, but I'd actually take Santiago. And they say the MW division sucks! Who are THEY?

i am one of "THEY"

anyway to answer the question, i an going to have to go with JZ after winning the K-1 GP and also Ben Rothwell tearing it up in the IFL going 5-0 this year along with Lawler and santiago who were already mentioned.

Khaos

12/24/07 5:56:24AM

I agree with everyone else "the fighter of the year" outside of Zuffa, is a tie between "Ruthless" Robbie Lawler & Jorge Santiago.

I'd like to throw in Vladmir Matyushenko, going 5-0 in the IFL and being the fist individual champion in the company.

evilpimp

12/24/07 6:39:19AM

two good picks with santiago and lawler

Purge

12/24/07 9:56:52AM

JZ Calvan

babalu2720

12/24/07 10:56:53AM

JZ, defended his HEROES tournament title in dominating fashoin, finished his fights against top calibur opponents....If JZ -Aoki wasn't off and after JZ KO'D Aoki he'd have to be fighter of the year, I say including the UFC

loonytnt

12/24/07 1:52:40PM

yeah i think i need to go with robbie

NatedawgThaM

12/24/07 3:56:04PM

Robbie Lawler. His fight with Trigg is so underrated it's not even funny. It was one of the best fights of the year and it's a shame I only saw it because I'm a Robbie fan and I had to look it up on ProElite. It was a war on the feet and on the ground it was neutral. Brutal KO!!!

Ninja fight, Brutal KO after controling the whole fight!

I mean Robbie is calm and since he's calm. He's one of the deadliest fighters around. Because he's patient unlike in any of his UFC fights. I mean if his fight didn't get cancelled he would have just put it in stone after another brutal KO but I still think he had the best year for somebody not in WEC or UFC...

fedorwins1

12/24/07 4:46:20PM

JZ, he beat Shaolin and Dida easily. A lot of people have never heard of Dida before, but he's a very very talented striker out of Chutebox and JZ disposed of him easily and pretty much choke slammed Shaolin.